


trickle and bubble

by orca_mandaeru



Series: the mire [2]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band), The Edge Chronicles - Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
Genre: M/M, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 20:13:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15826128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orca_mandaeru/pseuds/orca_mandaeru
Summary: another someone wanders into the mire and jihoon's life





	trickle and bubble

Jihoon and Seungcheol are fast asleep, curled around each other in the snug hammock when something wakes Jihoon up, opening his eyes with a flash.

He carefully sits up and extricates Seungcheol's arms from around him, trying not to wake him.

The air of the cabin is as cool as the night air outside, and will retain that temperature even when the sun is high in the sky.

The sound that disturbed him comes again. A knock? It's not just a rare occurrence, it's impossible. There are already so few sentient creatures surviving in the Mire, and nothing that would knock, like they're in the politer districts of Undertown and not the Mire.

He slips out of the hammock, bare feet cold on the floorboards.

"Jihoonie?" Seungcheol’s drowsy voice drifts over.

"There's someone at the door," he responds.

Seungcheol sits up, aware but still blinking sleep out of his eyes. "What?"

Jihoon raises a finger to his lips and beckons. They lightly tread to the door, each taking one of their longer spears. The knock comes once more.

"Helllooo?" A bright voice rings out. Jihoon and Seungcheol look at each other, confused.  In one swift moment, Jihoon yanks the door open inwards.

On the other side is a young man, mouth open and hard still raised to knock again.

“What do you want?" Jihoon asks.

"Well, I--" The stranger looks nervously between the both of them. "I'm stuck here, and I've been walking for hours already with nothing in sight. Then I came across this little cottage, so...can you help me?"

His eyes widen pleadingly, bottom lip pouting exaggeratingly. He must not be as innocent as he looks, if he survived hours in the MIre alone and got through the traps around the house.

"Of course you can! Come on in!" Seungcheol says, beaming. The stranger shines a blindingly bright smile at them, marching right in and thanking them enthusiastically. He goes on ahead, looking around the little house like he owns the place.

"Seungcheol," Jihoon hisses under his breath. "What are you doing."

"He doesn't mean any harm. I can tell."

Jihoon grits his teeth. He's spent so long knowing that being alone was much safer in the long run, and now he’s got not one, but two others to keep an eye on? But Seungcheol's instincts certainly haven't been wrong in any way yet.

"He can stay. For now," Jihoon sighs, looking at the new bother poking around his kitchen.

                                                                           

                                                                                                                    ***

Somehow Seungcheol gets them to all sit and eat together, one of their fancier meals of roast mire-deer.

"Tell us about yourself," Seungcheol, leaning back in the homemade chair. Jihoon can tell he's curious, found something immediately interesting about the newcomer, and Jihoon can't deny that he's curious as well. The stranger perks up.

"I'm Soonyoung," he hesitates a bit before continuing. "I...got stranded here?"

"You're a really bad liar," Jihoon comments, and Soonyoung breaks out in a little blush. Maybe it's endearing...just a little bit.

"Okay. The truth is I came from Undertown. I can't go back there or...I'll be killed." A pause follows, Jihoon and Seungcheol digesting the information. He doesn't like the idea of taking this stranger into his home, but he'd done it with Seungcheol, hadn't he?

That was different.

But it really wasn't. And his little cottage could possibly fit three, though it'd be a squeeze.  
  
They roll out the extra hammock for Soonyoung, hanging it up in the main room. Jihoon bolts the bedroom door, just in case.

 

                                                                                                                     ***

 

The next day rolls around, and bright and early Jihoon gets stuck with showing Soonyoung around while Seungcheol scours the perimeter of the Mire/Edgeland border for clients. It's a tedious job, but there's nearly always someone wanting to cross the mire, and it's almost always from the Edgelands.

Soonyoung is excited but a good listener, making earnest eye contact as Jihoon points out how to get fresh water and to easily avoid the traps.

He's proud of his house. He had put it together over years from all the scraps he found in the mud. There were plenty of skyship wrecks as well. Soonyoung was bright, in his personality and mind, and soaked up information about the Mire like a sponge. Jihoon had to admit that he was unusually endeared by the boy already...it had taken even Seungcheol months for them to start really appreciating each other.

Soonyoung didn't even flinch when Jihoon speared an ooze fish and showed him how to gut it. Obviously not raised in the wealth of Sanctaphrax or the Leaguesmen, then. But still from Undertown, and a fugitive…

The more Jihoon heard about the populated tip of the Edge the less he liked. Even now, Seungcheol rarely opened up about his childhood in the Knights' Academy, his former duty. The regret still hit him sometimes. If Soonyoung didn't want to talk about his past, that was fine. Maybe he could talk to Seungcheol about it, bond over it.  
  
Jihoon soon ate his words. Soonyoung and Seungcheol put together was an absolute menace. They fed on each other, the energy turing up to 200% when they were together. Seungcheol by himself was certainly louder than Jihoon, but not a chatterbox. Soonyoung, too, could have periods of unexpected quiet and stillness.

But put together, it was like they activated each other. Jihoon...actually loved it. They could take their excitement out on each other, even though one of their favorite pastimes was teasing them. Seungcheol knew exactly how to rile him up, though recently Soonyoung was making him blush more than he had his whole life.

It was like the barren expanse of the Mire lit up and became an almost friendly place when they all came together to face the day.

Maybe it was inevitable, with how well they all fit together. Maybe it was supposed to be, with the way Soonyoung made Seungcheol's heart skip in delight and Jihoon melt in a soft little puddle. Or maybe it was just being the only three sane, sentient creatures in hundreds of miles. Or it wasn't that complicated.

But for whatever reason, Jihoon-and-Seungcheol out in the Mire became Jihoon-Seungcheol-Soonyoung out in the Mire, in every way. and the both of them got to experience Soonyoung's sweet kisses livening up their days just like the rest of him did.


End file.
